To Live As Those Who Rule
by radiantmoonlightlove
Summary: The power to rule the world was given to man a long time ago. This, however, does not mean that man should utilize that power. Leon, previously unaware of the Numbers, comes to try and save humanity from itself, but what he discovers may leave him questioning whether humanity is even worth saving... Cloud/Leon Axel/Roxas Riku/Sora Zexion/Demyx Saïx/Xemnas and more.
1. Chapter One

**This is a rewrite of the original first chapter. I sincerely apologize for the lack of quality of the previously uploaded chapter, and I sincerely hope that this one is more enjoyable.**

Title: To Live, As Those Who Rule

Disclaimer: I do not own. Kingdom Hearts does not belong to me, but to those who contributed to its creation...

Rating: Strong T, though subject to change.

Warning(s): Language, supernatural themes, dark themes (especially as story progresses). Warnings will be posted at the beginning of the chapter.

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**Chapter One**

_Leon hated his job._

_He hated having to do menial tasks like the one he was currently invested in. Recovering an object that could fit into the pocket of his pants hardly counted as a suitable mission. Yet here he was, bleeding from head to toe for the data- or whatever it was. He had cuts of various size and depth etched in his flesh, as well as scrapes from various encounters that left his arms stinging and bleeding from his shoulder down to his fingertips. His pants had become wet from the rain, and were now sticking to him like a second skin, his shirt doing the same. The jacket he had grabbed to wear as a disguise, for however long that ruse had lasted, only served to soak up more of the rain and catch in the breeze in ways that helped as much as it hindered. He could cast deceptive shadows along walls and send his pursuers on a wild goose chase, but the added backdraft also slowed his movement to an extent. All in all, the whole ordeal was trying._

_There was no reason that such a small amount of data should cause this much of a headache._

_Leon groaned and turned on his heel, attempting to shake the persons coming after him. His chest hurt and his vision blurred when warm blood- from a cut above his eyebrow, no doubt- slid down the right side of his face._

_He scoffed and slapped a hand to his face to angrily wipe the blood away. He should have been more careful with the extraction. If he had, then this bleeding into his eyesight would have been prevented._

_'Idiot', Leon admonished himself as he kept running. He did not have time to stop and evaluate his performance, not with so many persons chasing after him. No, because stopping now was sure to lead to his death, and as accepting as he was of the possibility, allowing himself to die now was not something he was going to let happen._

_With a grunt, he leapt from one building to the next, scaling rain soaked walls and dashing up metal fire escapes in pursuit of a safe escape route. He was close to one, he remembered from the blueprints of the compound. The only problem that remained now was actually getting to the escape without being seen. However, there were already footsteps rapidly approaching from behind him._

_"There he is!" someone called out. Immediately, Leon turned away and began dodging bullets. His body moved without thought, dodging, weaving and ducking for cover as he made his way along the rooftops._

_"Shit!" He could hear the man behind him curse as he vanished from sight, dropping to a low roof and landing with a crouch. He took a second to examine the ledge before deciding that the drop to the ground did not pose a bodily threat. He jumped to the streets and ducked into the shadow of the building behind him (it was once a thriving pharmacy, his mind supplied, but now it stood as an abandoned building). He frowned, forcefully dislodging himself from any further distracting thoughts as he strained his hearing to listen for the man chasing behind him._

_Quiet seconds were filled with the sounds of heavy breathing as chest burned and heaved. Lips that he would have preferred closed up remained opened, chapped and dry as hot, ragged, desperate breaths passed their depths._

_'Dammit...' He cursed his weakness as his body began trembling._

_Sit. Rest. His body threatened to collapse on itself, his knees locking and arms falling to his sides. He bit his bottom lip and reached for the fabric above the crisscross patchwork of flesh above his heart._

_We can't stay here, he silently whispered to his body, mentally reminding himself of the dangers of stalling now. 'We need to go on... Just a little longer...' He ran his hands along his aching thighs and half-assed massaged the muscles._

_"We're almost there," he estimated the distance mentally as he attempted to placate his exhausted body. "We're close, and there's not much opposition left, so, please..."_

_He wiped the sweat from his brow and focused on how accurate the statement had to have been._

_Pretty accurate, if the current opposition was anything to go by. They were calling the weakest of the bunch to come after him, relying on numbers to take him down. But he was faster and, dare he say, better at this than anyone currently pursuing him. The number tactic was not going to work on him._

_"Not tonight," he whispered determinately, and then snapped his mouth shut as nearby noise descended from the rooftop._

_"Damn!" the man he'd left behind shouted, "He's so fast!" He could hear the man turn on his heel as another set of footfalls approached the roof._

_The newest arrival sounded just as out of breath as the first guy as they scoffed before speaking. "Well, what did you expect?" the second person, a woman, replied, her words dripping with venom. "Consider his position, stupid." She huffed. "He's the-"_

_He shook his head and purposely lost their words to the brief dizziness that overtook him. He did not want to hear it again. His position only served as two things in his life, as a consistent annoyance that he could not ignore, and as words that would be etched on his grave marker if he did not do something immediately about the two chatterboxes standing on the ledge above his head._

_Leon narrowed his eyes and summoned his gunblade to his hand, a plan already in mind. He would take them out. Quietly. Painlessly. Permanently._

_All that he had to do was scale the wall, the rest was easy. Just sneak up behind them, raise Revolver, take aim, and then-_

_He almost gave his position, barely clamping down on the scream threatening to pour from his soul._

_'No!' He clenched his eyes shut and rapidly shook his head, attempting to shake the thoughts away._

_'No!' He bit the inside of his cheek, stopping just short of drawing blood. 'I won't do it! Not again...' He purposely unsteadied the weapon in his hand, not enough to let the gunblade clatter to the ground, just enough that the tip of the metal graze the ground with a low, barely audible scratching sound._

_He breathed against the oppressive darkness threatening to overtake him, clawing again at his chest as if the wounds he had no recollection of obtaining would somehow open and bleed out an explanation as to why he felt this way._

_He groaned low in his throat, the sound more of a whimper than anything else, as he raised his right hand and brought the cool handle of the gunblade to his forehead. The dangling metal lion chain attachment clicked in the wind and echoed in his mind as he with fought himself._

_'Calm down,' he ordered himself with a deep inhale of cold air. 'Calm down and breathe...' his heartbeat began to slow, the anxious feeling in his bones dying down as he continued to force his emotions down._

_'You don't have time for this,' He opened his eyes and stared at the building on the other side of the alleyway. 'There are things that need to be taken care of...' He nodded his head and adjusted his grip on the gunblade, narrowing his eyes in determination before turning to the sound of the two voices. _

_He had a mission to accomplish._

_Rain pelted the uniformed pursuer as he searched around for his escaped target. "He was on top of the- Agh!" he fell on the rooftop, screaming and cursing as blood poured from a leg and both arms._

_"Are you alright?!" The woman ran to his side, her eyes searching for danger as she reached for a weapon at her side._

_Quicker than her hands could touch the weapon, Leon approached and sent her out of his way. She cried out as she fell to her knees, trembling fingers covering the site where the high speed technique had grazed her side._

_"Damn!" The woman gripped the fabric to halt the bleeding. "That little bastard's quicker than I thought!"_

_The man on the ground next to her angrily snatched a communicator from his belt and swiftly radioed their location._

_"The intruder's been spotted on the roof! Dammit, someone get up here and take him out!"_

_He could hear the wounded man calling for the backup- wanted to go back and silence the call with his own hands- __**NO!- **__but forced himself to keep going. The call was an inconvenience, but he wasn't worried about it. He was already on top of the next roof and running, moving on without a spare glance back._

_"You're doing good..." He told himself, panting heavily as he dismissed his gunblade and ran. 'You're doing great. Just keep going'._

**_..._**

_"Great job, Leonhart!" The head of the department, a well-aged bespectacled gentleman with a fancy for outdated watches and button-up vests, handled the papers given to him in a very delicate manner, as though the information on the reports would fall off the pages if they were moved too roughly. "I trust that you fulfilled the objective."_

_Leon nodded and reached into his back pocket to withdraw a gold, blood sprinkled piece of paper. He unfolded the page, revealing a large, black, elegantly scripted number 7._

_"Very good!" There was a smile on the older man's lips that did not quite reach his glasses framed eyes as Leon passed the paper to the older man. Leon thought it odd, but did not question it._

_His duty was to obey. Nothing more._

_As if sensing the thoughts running through Leon's mind, the older man cleared his throat and called the brunet's full attention on him. "I'll look over these reports," he smiled at the small brunet standing along the opposite side of the highly organized, noticeably polished heavy wooden desk. "You just..." he trailed off, running a hand through his short, brown hair. He took some time to collect himself, and, when he gathered enough of himself to speak again; he held a genuine smile on his face as he addressed the teen._

_"Leonhart, keep doing this department proud!"_

_Leon stared absently at the department's leader, unable to properly respond to the request. What did the leader mean by that? Had he not been doing the department proud before now? _

_Leon narrowed his eyes and nodded his head. He would get it right. He would do what the department needed of him. And for years he did, doing well enough to be promoted several times until he reached a position that he felt comfortable doing._

_Then..._

_"Leonhart," Hard eyes stared at a folder resting on his desk. "I have a job for you."_

_Leon nodded and held out his hand, taking the folder and accepting his new assignment._

_**...**_

"You're both late?!" A delicate looking hand slammed down on the desk with more force than the hand seemed capable of. The owner of the hand, a forty something year old woman, glared her hardest at the men standing before her.

Leon, now in his twenties, stood tall and nodded his head, acknowledging his fault. Next to him a sound, something like a huff, could be heard. The woman agitatedly drummed her fingers along the desk surface and shook her head.

"I don't believe this..." She muttered, searching the desk for something to ease the headache that was sure to be developing.

Leon ducked his head and closed his eyes, sympathizing with her even as he waged an internal war within himself.

He had been late today. _**Late**_.

He could kick his own ass.

(Technically, the lighter, more optimistic side of his thoughts spoke out against his self-depreciation; you weren't the one who was late.)

But that doesn't matter, Leon thought, shaking away the excuses. This was a job and he knew the things that were required of him. Making sure that his boss arrived on time and _with him _was something that should have come to him as second nature. Especially after being on the job for... what was it? Roughly four years now?

'_Yes, Leonhart,'_ he thought to himself, squinting at the harshness of his internal voice. You should have known better. And he should have.

Leon could feel a sneer pulling at the back of his lips. '_You're such a weakling now_', his voice, much younger than his present self, sounded in his ear.

'_You're too pathetic. Nothing like this could have ever happened to us back in the day_.'

Leon clenched his eyes shut. _'Not now...'_ He shook his head to clear his thoughts, but paused midway through the action. The sound of catchy, rhyming words slowly echoed in his ear.

The lyrics to a song were whispered in his ear, followed by an airy whisper of a beat. Leon narrowed his eyes and turned to the location of the origin of the sound.

Red hair bounced to an unlabeled beat as green eyes stared at the sunlight on ceiling. Shoes too casual for an office meeting tapped lightly against the carpeted floor as a thin man two years Leon's junior unabashedly ignored the woman's anger.

_'...Seriously?' _Leon stared at the red head and continued to watch him, even after the younger man had caught him looking.

Puckered lips died down into a smooth grin. Green eyes burrowed into his and eyebrows rose as their owner proudly and casually spoke. "Something on your mind?"

Leon glared, feeling the corners of his mouth drop down into a frown. _'You're an idiot.'_ Leon thought at the man and returned his gaze forward. He was in no mood to entertain the antics of a man who clearly understood what he was doing.

Low chuckling seemed to bounce off the walls of the expansive office. Leon rolled his eyes and resumed his observation of the woman standing across from him.

Her brown eyes glared at the men on the opposite side of the desk, her cheeks becoming almost as red as the hair that curtained her face.

"What was that?" She pointed from Leon to the red haired male and back again. "Is that some kind of inside joke?"

Leon sighed. A joke? He almost kind of wished that it was. "It's not." Leon finished just in time to catch a muttered "Kiss ass."

He pinched the bridge of his nose, breathed in through his nose and out through his lips. "How old are you?" he furrowed his brow and narrowed his eyes on the speaker.

For all of his effort, Leon was rewarded with an extended middle finger in his face.

"Dammit, Axel!" a pen went flying through the air, darting through the air between the two males before hitting against the closed office double doors. The red head lowered his hand and shifted his weight.

Amused green eyes followed the pen from the floor where it had landed to the direction that the pen had been thrown from.

Lips parted into a grin. "Mother," Axel's tone was nothing short of mocking as he addressed his mother for what might have been the first time since he'd walked into the office. "What was that?"

"Apparently, the only way of getting your attention," The woman looked marginally disheartened by the revelation but wiped the expression off of her face almost as quickly as it had come.

"You have an important meeting today," she continued speaking, her tone straightforward and uncompromising. "You cannot be late."

"Then I won't be," Axel shrugged his shoulders and grinned in a way that visibly set his mother on edge. "After all, I know how upsetting it would be to father if I showed a lack of professionalism to any of his partners."

Leon could practically hear the woman's teeth grinding as she stared at her son with equal parts fear and disappointment in her eyes. Her nails dragged along the top of the desk as she pulled her hands into fists, the muscles taunt and her body shaking with barely restrained anger.

Axel was toeing over the line again, Leon assessed without so much as a blink of an eye. Axel was bringing things into the conversation that was better left discussed in a different setting. Preferably at night, in a surprisingly lavish unassuming building, where only those who needed to hear the unspoken conversation would be present. Not in the very public space of Axel's father's office, not with said man standing off to the side of his very angry wife, looking between the mother and the child in search of what could have possibly set the woman off.

Leon kept his hands at his sides and wordlessly watched over the exchange, preparing himself to intervene if and when it became necessary.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, if Axel's put-off expression was anything to go by) an intervention was not needed. Axel's father stepped forth with a smile on his face and placed himself in the middle of the intense stare off between the two red heads.

"It's all right, dear," he placed a hand on his wife's shoulder and eased her to her full height. "Why don't we let it go, just this once?" He rubbed his hands up and down her upper arms as he smiled softly at her, silently comforting her when she turned a confused gaze his way.

"Let it go?" She tasted the words in her mouth with a puzzled frown, as though they were some new cuisine she was trying for the first time and did not approve of the taste. Red eyebrows dug deep and brown eyes narrowed in suspicious contemplation. "As in 'ignore the fact that they were late'?"

Green eyes closed as the brunet haired man smiled down at his wife. "They're here in time for the meeting. That's all that really matters, isn't it?" Slowly, as if just learning the action for the first time, Axel's mother nodded. Axel's father nodded again, as if to congratulate his wife's action.

"Besides, this is the first time Leon's been late for _anything _since we've known the man. Why punish him for it?" He took a half step away from his wife and waved his hand, presenting the audience of two with a flourish. "We ought to celebrate it." Axel's father laughed. Axel laughed. Leon groaned inwardly and died a little on the inside.

Leon again massaged the bridge of his nose with gloved fingers and sighed. "Please, don't."

Axel's mother straightened in her husband's grasp, the laughter snapping her out of whatever confused haze she might have been in. Leon lowered his hand and stood, prepared for whatever she had to say. Once again, Axel's father intercepted her words before they came to her lips.

"Anyway," Axel's father let his hands drop from his wife's shoulders and pointed at the watch on his wrist, "we have reservations to get to, remember?" He raised an eyebrow and sent a look his wife's way. She stared at her husband for a moment before raising a hand to her lips and letting out a low 'oh!'.

"That's right!" Axel's mother nodded and lowered her hand. She smiled brightly and looked past her husband to her son and his hired protection. "Axel," she said her son's name with unrestrained excitement, "we're off to meet-"

"Ah!" Axel's father covered her lips with a finger. "Not now..." He teased, looking from his wife to Axel and back.

"Right!" Axel's mother nodded her head and laughed, looking more like a child than a forty something year old woman. She quickly gathered her purse and other belongings off of the paper covered desktop and made her way to the door.

Axel's father laughed after her and began his exit, taking a moment to clap a hand on Axel's shoulder before leaving. "Have a good day, son." He squeezed Axel's shoulder. Axel nodded and followed his parents to the door.

"See you both later!" Axel's mother gave her son a hug and a pointed look, signaling between the apprentice CEO and his bodyguard. Leon nodded slowly, mentally charting in the unspoken meeting time. The red haired woman smiled gratefully and turned to her husband, linking their arms as they left the office to meet up with their surprise guest.

Leon caught sight of his current charge and sighed. There it was again, that blank, narrow eyed expression on Axel's face. There were thoughts running back and forth behind that contemplative expression, some of which might have been good but others, Leon has had the misfortune of discovering, were more trouble than they were worth.

Leon shook his head and made his way to the abandoned desk. No, he decided, taking a seat in the empty rolling chair. He was not about to get caught up in another one of Axel's schemes. He did not feel like having to deal with whatever the fallout may have been, and also, there was no time for anything other than work. They were late. Now they had to play 'catch up'.

Leon started up the computer and began entering passwords. "Getting upset isn't going to do anything." He pushed away from the desk and began withdrawing documents, ink pens, stamps, and other necessities out of the various drawers. "Get over it and get to work."

Leon opened a larger drawer and began fingering through the large amount of folders there. He scanned over the names and titles written on labels until he located some files Axel would probably need for the meeting, and withdrew them from their compartment. When Leon sat up again, he was not surprised to see Axel squatting on the other side of the desk, his elbows on the desk and chin resting in the palms of his hands, watching him.

Leon met Axel's stare. "What?"

"Nothing," Axel shook his head. "Geez, Leon. You're always so serious,"

He pushed back on the desk, rising to his feet, and planted his hands on his hips. "No one's pissed off or anything. Just annoyed because he and his bodyguard had to skip breakfast in order to get here on time."

Leon leaned back in the chair and tapped a pen against the desk. "Yet neither of us was."

Axel raised his arms above his head and stretched. "Funny how those things work out."

Leon shook his head and stood from the chair. "Hilarious." He remarked sarcastically and moved aside so Axel could sit and begin his work. Axel gave him a cheesy grin in reply, one Leon chose to ignore as he, being the extra dutiful bodyguard that he was, began the side paperwork that Axel wholeheartedly considered 'Bullshit'.

Leon picked some of the folders from the stacked on the desk and retrieved a sleek laptop from a large cabinet along the wall to the left of Axel. He opened the personal computer and made his way to the sofa in the waiting area of the office.

(Axel and his parents jokingly referred to it as Leon's space, once as Leon's 'unofficial home away from home'. Leon had replied with a blunt "No".)

He organized stacks of paper around him, withdrew several pens from a tin container in the middle of the nearby coffee table, and began his work.

_'These papers are only about Axel's father's company.'_ Leon concluded after working for an hour and a half. He frowned, disappointed, but was unsure of where to place that frustration. At the workload? No. So, then, at himself because, honestly, what did he expect? He was with Axel at _Axel's father's company_, and there was a drastic difference between Axel's father's work and Axel's mother's...

Leon frowned and set down the clip of papers he'd been holding. Nothing was of importance in them anyway, he concluded as he fingered for another stapled stack. He reached past some of the more obvious papers, as they were page's he'd already seen before, and looked at some of the folders he had not seen before. He narrowed his eyes and scanned the pages rapidly, reading intently for any passages that appeared out of place for Axel's father's company...

"I can assure you that everything you're going to read in those papers is on the side of legal and just."

Leon blinked slowly, craning his head until his eyes met Axel's. Gray storm clouds met with the mischievous grinning eyes of a Cheshire cat.

"What are you talking about, Axel?" He asked, deadpan. Axel smirked a little wider, but otherwise said nothing. Leon shook his head and mentally rolled his eyes. "...Whatever." He gave up on Axel's attempt at...whatever the red head was going for, and steered the conversation onto something more productive and pressing.

"The meeting," Leon casually tossed out on the table, calling Axel's attention to the upcoming gathering. Axel blinked and stared at Leon like he was speaking a language that had yet to be created. The brunet bodyguard raised and lowered his shoulder in a mute, agitated sigh.

"There is a meeting in a few hours that you need to attend." He clarified. "Am I going in with you, or do you want me to wait outside?"

Axel briefly stared at Leon then lowered his eyes to the desk. "I don't know." He picked up the folder his mother had been addressing earlier. "I haven't read the specifics yet."

He smirked, a bare upward tilt of the lips, and held the folder out toward Leon's direction. "I can't tell you what the meeting will be about or who will be there, but _you _can tell me after reading this."

Leon resumed his work, not rising to the bait. "Not necessary," He filled in some lines on one of the sheets in his hand and lowered it, bringing the laptop closer instead. "Just go over the room's security before it's too late and let me know what I need to do."

Leon could hear Axel lower the folder to the desk, and didn't need to turn around to know that the red head was staring at him, watching him, with a smirk on his lips.

"Leon?" Axel began.

Leon turned his head with a frown. "What?"

Axel raised a hand and pointed in his direction. "I like you this way." he splayed his fingers and waved, as if that would clear up the confusion in the air.

"I like...this, okay? So, do me a favor and don't ever change."


	2. Chapter Two

**TO ALL WHO HAVE TAKEN THE TIME TO READ THIS STORY, THANK YOU! AND TO THOSE WHO HAVE ALERTED/FAVORITED THIS STORY, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!**

**ALSO, I have rewritten the first chapter of this story! **

**If you have read the previous (not rewritten) chapter, I apologize for the lack of quality that you all were presented and hope that the rewrite is far more enjoyable.**

**Here is the second chapter! Please enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I do not own. Kingdom Hearts does not belong to me, but to those who contributed to its creation...

Warning(s): Dark themes, language.

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**Chapter** **Two**

Leon leaned against his car, his eyes closed and his arms crossed over his chest. He frowned, thinking about the last thing Axel had said before dismissing him from the day.

_"I like...this, okay? So, do me a favor and don't ever change."_

Leon grunted low in his throat._ 'Don't ever change'? _What was that supposed to mean?

Nothing, he quickly concluded, steering his silver car down another busy street. Axel's words meant nothing. And that was that, Leon decided with a definite nod.

In the rearview mirror, cars flashed their blinkers and drivers honked their horns. Leon leaned back in the driver's seat and put his foot on the accelerator, making the turn instead of wasting time holding up traffic. It was twelve in the morning now, probably the best time for him to take a nap before meeting up with Axel and his mother-

Leon frowned, Axel's self-designated ringtone playing through the cell phone plugged into the dashboard. They were meeting again in less than three hours. What did Axel want _now_?

Silently resigning himself to whatever whim was on his red headed boss' mind, Leon moved his thumb to press the speakerphone labeled 'answer' button attached to his steering wheel.

"Leonhart."

_"Leon? Is that you?"_ A panicked voice asked. Leon narrowed his eyes and pulled into a nearby parking lot.

"Yes..." he zeroed in on one of the front speakers as if they could tell him why a voice that did not belong to Axel was currently pouring into his ears. "Who is this?"

_"Leon? It's me, Sora,"_ Sora spoke more confidently now, but in no terms were his words less shaky. _"Leon, something's happened to Axel!"_

Leon closed his eyes and breathed deep.

"Sora, where are you right now?"

Sora swallowed hard enough to be heard over the line and gave Leon the location.

"On my way," Leon ended the call, exited the parking area, and sped down the streets.

_'Looks like I won't be taking getting much sleep tonight.'_

_**...**_

_'This is not my house.' _Axel was aware of that fact as soon as his eyes open. He wasn't in his house, and the surroundings did not look like any home he could recall visiting.

However important points as they may have been, the idea of being in an unrecognizable building was a lot less worrisome than the fact that there should not have been a roof over his head in the first place. After all, he just outside a minute ago. ...Wasn't he?

"Let's see..." He muttered aloud, trying his best to fit the events of the previous night together. "Last night, I dismissed Leon because I did not need him at the meeting. Then, what?" Axel frowned and glared at the ceiling as though the white surface kept the answers away from him.

"Oh, yeah!" Axel raised a hand and snapped triumphantly, sparking a dull pain that stretched across his chest. He narrowed his gaze but did not give the feeling another thought, too busy attempting to put his past actions into perspective. "Last thing I remember was standing outside in a sudden downpour and looking for my keys." He lowered his hand and closed his eyes, satisfied that some of the previous night was beginning to come back to him. Or, at the very least, that he remembered finishing the meeting before he woke up at wherever the hell he was.

Which was..?

He clenched his hands into fists and began to push himself up from the bed, but stopped when it seemed like all of the air was being squeezed out of his lungs.

Axel swore, his arms flailing as he gracelessly fell back on the sheets. Pain unlike anything he'd ever felt before drummed throughout his body and left him floundering among the sheets and blankets like a fish out of water.

"Wh-what the hell?!" He clenched at his chest, but removed his hand just as quickly. "Shit!" He swore, looking down to his exposed body and reeling at the sight.

"Wh-What the hell happened?" He squinted against the difficulty of inhaling deeply, but he could not help it when the sight of bandages overlapping over his chest and left shoulder threatened him with breathlessness. (...Again). He gingerly ran his fingertips along the medical wrap, mapped out the direction of the binding before he lowered himself back to the bed in a manner more dignified than his last laydown.

"Damn," He exhaled, returning to look at the ceiling again. "My chest feels like a fucking hammer was taken to it."

"That'll happen when you've been injured."

Axel shifted his gaze from one corner to the next until his eyes caught sight of the scarred brunet casually sitting along the side of the bed.

"_Excuse _me?" He narrowed his eyes. "I was injured?" He could have scoffed at the very notion. There was no way that could happen to him. He knew better than to let someone get too close to him. However, instead of agreeing with his unvoiced thoughts, Leon, in 'classic Leon' fashion, stoically informed him that yes; he had indeed heard that correctly. He had been hurt. All of this, Leon chose to inform him, before turning away from Axel in favor of returning to an open, unfinished magazine that had been resting in his lap.

"Axel, You were caught by an unidentified weapon and left to die in the streets." Leon clarified, turning to the next page of his magazine.

Axel stared at the brunet as his surprise gave way to contemplative neutrality. He mentally debated over an appropriate reaction to give, running through a list of scenarios in his head in order to choose the correct response.

One. He could let out a frustrated scream, but that would have been too much of an overreaction.

Two. He could panic, but that would just be another overreaction. He had been attacked in various ways before and he had plenty of enemies waiting and willing to attack him again. So, while waking up to find that he had been injured in some way was a bit of a shock, it was in no way an unexpected surprise. The standout piece of the ordeal, however, was that whoever had done it had somehow slipped past his defenses and caught him by surprise. That, above everything else, remained the most unsettling part of this ordeal.

Axel narrowed his eyes and again returned to the hospital ceiling. "When did it happen?"

"One night ago," Leon turned the page of his mechanical magazine, the sound momentarily overlapping the beeps and whirs of nearby machinery. "Twelve in the morning." Axel nodded.

"How bad was it?"

"You were unconscious when I arrived." Leon replied in a smooth tone, his words as easy as a doctor talking to a patient. "Would have bled out if I had not made it to you in time."

Axel paused, turning his head to look at Leon. The older man still had his head tilted downward and eyes trained on the pages of the magazine. To another person, Leon's actions would have suggested disinterest and a lack of attention. But Axel knew better.

"How did you get there in time?" He zeroed in on Leon's neutral, looking for a tell of some kind, openly scrutinizing the man who had, in all fairness, saved his life. "Well, Leon?"

"I drove," Leon replied without missing a beat, calmly turning another page of his mechanics magazine.

"Ass," Axel rolled his eyes and chuckled despite his initial wariness. "I meant how did you know _where _to find me?" The red head restated the question, though he was more than positive that the clarification was unnecessary. "I may not remember much about what happened that night, but I distinctly recall never telling anyone where I was going."

"Of course not." Leon replied with a huff of breath. "Because if you had, you wouldn't be laying here in this hospital."

Axel felt more than saw when Leon rolled his eyes, and if the red head were a better person, more than a miniscule part of him might have felt bad for the brunet. His mother would be mad at him- that much was a given. But when it came to Leon, his mother and his father would be very disappointed in the older male, especially since Leon should have "known better" because their "precious son" could have been killed.

Axel ran a hand through his hair and sighed deep. _So _much bullshit was about to follow him once he got out of here...

"Leon," when he spoke, it was with no joking undertone. Picking up on the mood of the redhead, Leon closed the publication and laid it flat on his lap. He crossed his arms over his chest and dutifully made eye contact with his boss.

"Sora had been nearby when you were attacked. He contacted me, and I met with him. The ambulance arrived shortly after I began treating the worst of your wounds and brought you here."

Axel pulled at the hair still in his hand._ Sora... _Now there was a second headache all its own. "Sora called you, did he?" The redhead drawled, anger and irritation adorning every letter he spoke. "Well, where is the little bastard at now?"

Leon settled in back into the seat, uncrossing his arms and resuming his reading. "Where do you think he is?"

Axel scoffed, glancing off to the side because, yes, he did know where that bastard was. "Anywhere but here," he muttered with a final tug on his hair. Axel scoffed and rolled his eyes. They were in a hospital. A _hospital_.

If there was a list of the places Sora would never willingly visit, the hospital would be at the top of the list. Not even the hospitals Axel's mother (practically) owned could quell Sora's aversion. Though, in retrospect, that was probably the worst example in the world that Axel could have thought of, but screw it. He was annoyed and tired and in pain, and none of those in any combination ever made for a positive combination.

"Sora would never be in a hospital."

But to Axel's surprise, Leon turned to him, raised an eyebrow, and stared at Axel like Axel had just said the dumbest sentence in all of human existence. "No," Leon began slowly, "Sora's _here_."

Axel raised an eyebrow and gave the room as much of a quick look over as he could. The teen in question was nowhere to be seen. "Where exactly _is _he?"

Leon sighed and closed his eyes. He held up a hand with three extended fingers and slowly began lowering them one by one until all fingers were lowered and the hospital room's door opened so wide and hard that it collided with the doorstopper with a loud bang.

"Leon, I got your text!" Wide blue eyes searched the room, falling from the frowning man sitting in a chair to the startled redhead looking up at the doorway from the hospital bed.

"Axel?" A teenaged boy wearing black sweatpants, an oversized long-sleeved gray shirt, and too much concealing make up on his face paused in the doorway, observing the green eyed male with equal parts sadness, worry, joy and relief.

"You're awake?" He fully into the room, slamming the door behind him (much to the chagrin of the other occupants) and stood at the red head's side, slowly taking in the sight of the red headed man as if to assure himself that what he was seeing was real. "That's a relief..."

He raised a hand to grab at the material of his gray shirt, his eyes downcast. "The last time I saw you, you were hurt. Badly. There was so much blood..." He closed his eyes against the memories, the words hanging in the air as he took a step back and exhaled. "I was...worried."

Axel scratched the back of his head, not sure of what to say. Part of him wanted to yell at Sora, while another part of him wanted to thank Sora for taking the time to put on the makeup. A third part of him, the worst part of him, wanted to send Leon out to pick up something sweet to eat because Sora's face reminded him of cake.

"I'm...uh..." Axel began, but could not finish. He figured he would apologize, but that probably wasn't the most accurate thing to do. Really, how did he apologize for being attacked? He hadn't planned on it, that much he was sure of. (Hell, if anything, his assailant should be in here apologizing to the brunet, but to him overall. That ass!).

"...Yeah..." Axel raised a hand and, careful not to disrupt the concealing make up, began ruffling the smaller boy's brown hair. "Didn't mean to worry you, kid."

"Its fine," Sora smiled and lowered Axel's hand from his hair. "So, how do you feel now? You know, other than like you've been mauled by a large, angry cat."

_'A large, angry cat?'_ Axel raised an eyebrow and looked over Sora's shoulder toward Leon. The brunet silently informed him that they would discuss it later. Axel nodded mutely and turned back to Sora, whom was still watching him expectantly.

Axel shrugged his shoulders as best as he could. "I feel like I could kick someone's ass," Axel replied, smiling faintly at the sound of Sora's laughter and Leon's amused chuckle.

"I guess you would."

"Damn straight."

Sora smiled brighter as he retrieved a chair from along the wall. He carried it to the bedside, next to Leon, and turned the seat backwards so he could rest his arms along the top of it, a stark contrast to scarred brunet making proper use of his chair.

"Well it's a good thing I was there when I was. You probably wouldn't be able to enact your revenge otherwise!" Sora began to laugh, but stopped short. He peered up through his lashes at Axel as he slowly curled in on himself. He raised his shoulders and ducked his chin, all obvious signs of guilt and regret.

The brunet haired teen knew the rules that came with his...living arrangements. (Axel really hated to think of it like that). There were certain, very specific things that Sora could do and "should" do, and then there were things that Sora had absolutely no business doing. What he had to have been doing to have found Axel at _twelve in the morning _had to have obviously have been something that the blue eyed teen should definitely _not _have been doing. (This was, of course, ignoring the strict timelines that Axel was told that Sora needed to stick to.)

None of what Sora admitted to doing added up. And since the brunet had been nice enough to bring the topic up, Axel was going to pursue it.

"What were you doing out so early in the morning in the first place?" Axel asked, out of obligation more than anything else.

Sora looked to the side and shook his head. "I wasn't doing anything..."

Obviously a lie. "So, nothing?" He asked with sarcastic tones of disbelief. "You were doing _nothing _at twelve in the morning? Somehow I find that hard to believe..."

"Fine! I admit it! I broke that stupid curfew!" Sora snapped, keeping his tone sharp but voice down. "But can't you admit that it wasn't a bad thing? If I hadn't have been out there, if I had been back in that place twiddling my thumbs and sitting around doing nothing, the two of you would have been dead!" Sora glared off the side, closing his eyes and shaking his head, breathing slow and deep in an attempt to regain his composure before again making eye contact with the red head in the hospital bed.

"Isn't that enough to leave it alone, just this once?"

Axel held his gaze for a little longer, but let the conversation go. First, this was neither the time nor the place. Second, in his opinion, the admonishing conversation was not his to give.

_'Whatever'_, He decided with a wave of his hand. It was not like he gave a damn about what the kid was doing anyway. He just wanted to keep Sora alive, the things the kid did with that life did not concern him.

What did concern Axel, however, was something Sora had said. '_Two _of you'? As far as Axel knew, he was an individual being. So that would mean...

"There was someone there?" Axel raised his eyebrows and sat up in the bed, ignoring the burning pain of his injuries. He narrowed his eyes and ground his teeth, an unpleasant feeling settling over him. "Anyone I know?"

Sora shook his head but it was Leon who spoke. "No."

Axel frowned but nodded. "Anyone that my father or mother would... _associate _with?"

Sora bit his bottom lip and turned away. Leon stared at the air between the two and slowly shook his head "No."

Axel stiffly ducked his chin, a pale imitation of a nod, before clenching and unclenching is fists. There was always so much shit for him to do.

"How are they doing?" Axel pushed aside irritation, exhaustion, and anything else he might have been feeling, in favor of beginning the long process of covering his tracks. "What was their injury?" It was more reflex that had him ask the question, even when the answer appeared fairly obvious.

_Damn training... _Axel cursed himself and rolled his eyes at Leon's blank stare. The brunet might as well have held up a sign that read 'DUH' in bold, capital letters. "Right..." Axel sighed and dragged a hand down his face. "So, do we know who this unlucky person is?"

Leon shook his head and cast and accusatory stare at the closed hospital door. "As of yet, we have no information regarding the identity of the person." He turned to face Axel again. "But what I can tell you is that it is a young blond haired male, and that he's being kept in a separate wing from our current position."

Axel paused, staring wide eyed through his fingers at the older male. "What?" He lowered his hand and shifted on the mattress. "Is he alive?" Axel demanded, his brow furrowed and mouth suddenly dry. "What happened to him?"

It was Sora who cleared his throat and spoke up. "Well, I don't know the exact details, but..."


End file.
